Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
Forty years on and still going strong, 27 Oct 2003
When all the other fashionable fantasy of our time is forgotten three writers will be remembered and read -- Tolkien, Peake and Moorcock. And perhaps the most interesting of these is Moorcock, since he has written such a wide variety of fiction, including some of the best literary fiction of our time. If you want to find out about his fantasy, this is probably the best collection to begin with. It is about as fat as the average first volume of a Tolkien-clone but contains an amazing amount of substance. Read with the second volume (Stormbringer) it forms an epic which knocks all others out of the ring (and I'm
including LOTR). Elric's father, Sadric, has already begun the rot before the series opens, finding himself unable to sacrifice the usual number of brides and bridegrooms to bring good luck to his own wedding. This, many at court believe, has meant that his wife not only gave birth to a feeble albino, but died herself. Now that albino sits on the Ruby Throne of Melnibone and his subjects wonder whether he will restore the old customs or continue the rot. In particular his cousin Yyrkoon and Yyrkoon's sister (Elric's betrothed) are curious about this,
for Cymoril, the sister, loves Elric while Yyrkoon not only hates him, he covets the throne of Melnibone, pledged to return the Empire to its former glory, through sorcery, cruelty and compacts with the forces of evil. So the saga begins, with Elric forever ambiguous, yet still having many of the traits of the unhuman Melniboneans, not least a penchant for cruel slaughter. This trait will be emphasised when he at last discovers Stormbringer, the black runesword which drinks souls and passes their vitality on to Elric himself, allowing him to sustain himself without drugs or charms.
My advice is to dive in with this book and then read Stormbringer. When you've done with the two omnibuses there are still two fine Elric novels to be read, which develop the ideas both dramatically and intellectually (for Moorcock is that rare thing, an intellectual fantast working in a popular mode). In
my humble opinion The Dreamthief's Daughter is one of the finest Elric novels, yet only written a couple of years ago, while The
Skrayling Tree is its worthy companion. If you are not familiar with Elric, now's the time to start. Moorcock has been called the Boss fantasy writer by many greater critics than me. I assure you, you won't be disappointed.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
BRILLIANT, 15 May 1999
By A Customer
I have actually read most of the stories in this collection before, the first story, Elric of Melnibone, I was reading for the third time. It is not your usual "Tolkien" style fantasy, although unlike Michael Moorcock I loved "The Lord of Rings", but I do dislike most of Tolkien's imitators intensely. The 1st story must be one the best fantasy stories ever written, it is quite short but it contains a lot of action, and Michael Moorcock's world is far more original than your typical pseudo medieval Europe setting, I just wish that he would flesh it out a bit more. On the other hand that might be part of the fun, I wasted many hours as a teenager imagining the world of Melnibone, and drawing the various characters. I did notice that Elric's earlier stories are far more fun than the later ones, they are straightforward fantasy adventures, although with a much harder "edge" to them than anything currently available, his newer stories i'm not really sure about, they are somewhat (dare i say it) tedious, and they seem to repeat ideas from other stories. But overall this book is brilliant, for those of you who are wasting their time with books by inferior writers like Terry brooks and David Eddings, drop them, and go out and buy this one.
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10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
Morcook is THE Fantasy writer of today!, 8 Oct 2001
I've read his entire book in just two days, so gripping it was. Morcook takes us in a ride through the wonderfully detailed, if chaotic, world of Elric, the albino prince of the decadent kingdom of Melibone. Not human, ruler of a cruel people, Elric is ravaged by the conflict between his duties as an emperor and the sense of moral he has developed, a trait that not so many of his kind share...
All in all, this book is a classic, a true epic, describing the life of one of fantasy's most loved characters, and an excelent introduction to the other books in the eternal champion series.
Just read it! You will love it...
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